药用植物亲缘关系的研究是中药资源的基础。黄精属是药用比较多的一类非常重要的药用植物，我国有40多种，是世界该属植物的主要分布中心，其中黄精、玉竹等有着悠久药用历史。但该属药用植物亲缘关系的研究存在着一系列问题：（1）传统形态分类学研究存在着许多争议；（2）化学成分研究很不完善；（3）缺乏系统的DNA分子亲缘关系研究；（4）现代药效作用所研究的植物种类少、不够完善，且不同的植物药效作用之间缺乏规律性；（5）生态环境-形态-活性成分-功效直接的相关性研究尚属空白；（6）“形态-成分-DNA-功效”之间的相关性缺乏系统的研究；（7）黄精、玉竹两大类药材应用混乱。基于此，本项目将采用先进的系统生物学技术，对该属药用植物进行系统深入的亲缘关系研究，揭示各植物亲缘关系-化学成分-疗效间的相关性，为其植物资源保护和可持续利用提供数据支持。

The study on phylogenetic relationship among medicinal plants is the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine resources. Many plants in Polygonatum are used as medicine such as Huangjing and Yuzhu and there are more than 40 species in China and our country is the distribution center of this genus. There are many problems of phylogenetic relationship in Polygonatum: (1) Many disputes of the classic taxonomy;(2) Imperfect study about the phytochemistry; (3) DNA molecular classification are not systemic; (4) Pharmaceutical study only occurred in few plants and no regularities were found among different plants; (5) No study about the relationships among ‘ environment – constituents – active compounds – function’; (6) No systemic study on about ‘morphology – compound – DNA – function’; (7) Huangjing and Yuzhu are hard to be distinguished in the market. Hence, phylogenetic relationship study will be carried out in this project to investigate the regulations about taxonomy – constituents – functions, and the results will support basic data for the protection and sustainable utilization in Polygonatum.